The host that the VM is running in can resolve us.archive.ubuntu.com just fine as well as every other domain.

No idea what's going on?!?

vagrant@lucid64:~$ sudo apt-get install dkms -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
fakeroot make patch
Suggested packages:
make-doc diffutils-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dkms fakeroot make patch
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 458kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,359kB of additional disk space will be used.
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main make 3.81-7ubuntu1
Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main patch 2.6-2ubuntu1
Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main dkms 2.1.1.2-2ubuntu1
Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main fakeroot 1.14.4-1ubuntu1
Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/m/make-dfsg/make_3.81-7ubuntu1_amd64.deb Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/p/patch/patch_2.6-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/d/dkms/dkms_2.1.1.2-2ubuntu1_all.deb Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/f/fakeroot/fakeroot_1.14.4-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Vanilla installation. My first attempt. Following instructions in a Deploying Rails book.

Looks like it's because you can't contact the DNS server set at all, and it's trying to use the root hints (which, in my experience, are very unreliable for end-users). Can you ping it? Are you set to bridged mode, with no firewalls getting in the way?

no i cannot ping the 10.0.2.3 host. It appears that the VirtualBox (or Vagrant) has assigned the VM an IP of 10.0.2.2. The host is at 10.0.1.201. VB/Vagrant set the nameserver to 10.0.2.3 which "works" and resolves some domains (see edit2 above) but not the most important for a Ubuntu box.
–
MeltemiJul 21 '12 at 4:17